Pakistan: Kaghan Valley

 This is an account of a 2006 trip with Emily So of Cambridge University to the areas affected by the Pakistan earthquake of 8 October 2005. Emily’s aim was to conduct a survey of survivors of the earthquake about their injuries as part of her PhD. It was the first time I’d been on one of these trips. I was keen to try to understand why so many people had died.  In talking to survivors, I began to shed light on the factors affecting recovery. And this became my major area of study.

The Research

Professor Amir Khan from Peshawar University hosted us and provided a cook and driver. Our base was in Abbottabad, unbeknownst to us, quite near where Osama bin Laden was hiding out. From there, we visited Muzaffarabad and Balakot to interview survivors and officials and to assess the damage. We also drove up the beautiful Kaghan Valley by jeep to Naran, as far as we could go because of landslides. We also interviewed people in Islamabad responsible for coordinating relief and reconstruction, and visited the areas affected by the earthquake.

Kaghan Valley

The Kaghan Valley is the old Silk Road from China to India and Arabia that crossed the high Himalaya. It goes from Balakot in the south to Chitral and Gilgit in the north and the epicentre of the 2005 earthquake we have come to research was just north of Balakot. This is the mythic North West Frontier, home, in imagination at least, of armed Pakistani tribesmen and site of the Great Game. Amir Khan was as excited as I was at the prospect and Emily, having satisfied herself that the survey was proceeding well, was keen to go too.

Reflections

Understanding some of the issues faced by survivors of the earthquake was a powerful experience for us both, and we were treated with the warmest hospitality and generosity by everyone we met in Pakistan.

Published 9 Nov 2022, 56 pages, ISBN 9781912460113